The present invention relates to a distributing device for feeding flat products to a user machine.
In particular, the present invention may be used to advantage in the food industry for feeding products, such as biscuits or lozenges, to a packing machine having two input channels, each receiving a respective stream of products off a production machine along a single feed channel.
For feeding each stream to the respective input channel, the feed channel is connected directly to both input channels by means of a branch comprising a distributing device, which normally consists of a two-position deflecting member for alternately directing the products traveling along the feed channel to one and then the other of the two input channels.
The above deflecting member involves a number of drawbacks, mainly due to the products, which travel at relatively high speed along the feed channel, being frequently damaged, and ultimately rejected, when intercepted by the deflecting member. Moreover, the deflecting member does not always succeed in feeding the products accurately inside the respective input channel, thus frequently resulting in jamming of the branch channel.